Prep football: Hononegah’s defense put to the test

That has the NIC-10’s most ground-based team eager to take on the annual state power AT 1 p.m. Saturday in the second round of the Class 7A football playoffs.

“We know Lake Zurich is a huge ground-and-pound team that is going to come at us and hit us as hard as they can,” Hononegah middle linebacker Matt Jacobs said. “We’re just going to have to try to hit them back. We’re super excited to play Lake Zurich.

“We’re going to bring it to them. We’re going to need to.”

Top-seeded Lake Zurich (9-1) is known mostly for defense. The Bears held both Hononegah and Boylan to six points last year in 17-6 and 21-6 playoff wins and gave up 7.8 points in four playoff games. The year before, Lake Zurich won 10-3 and 17-10 in the second round before losing to Boylan 16-10 in the semifinals. The year before that, the Bears gave up an average of 7 points in four playoff wins to reach the state finals. The year they won state, in 2007, the score was 7-3 in the title game.

“They’ve got the best defense in the state,” Jacobs said.

That leaves two questions. Is Hononegah’s running game, with Alex Martin and Jake Wilson both topping 400 combined yards the last five weeks, improved enough from last year, when Hononegah averaged less than 3 yards a carry against Lake Zurich (156 yards on 59 carries)? And can Hononegah’s defense shut down Lake Zurich?

It helps that the Bears prefer to run first. Last year, Lake Zurich had 18 yards passing and 187 yards on 47 runs vs. Hononegah.

“We’re built to stop the run,” coach Tim Sughroue said. “We’ve been much more effective stopping the run than stopping the pass.”

“Our offense is always capable of having that big play at any time,” defensive tackle Colin Smith said. “It’s going to be whether our defense can stop them.

“I’d rather have them try to run right at us. We’re a physical group of guys. We like to come up and make hits on people instead of waiting for them to come to us on passes.”

Lake Zurich’s Noah Allgood is a better passer now than he was last year, but Hononegah’s defensive focus still starts with the run. And now the No. 8-seeded Indians (8-2) get two of their best defenders back. Smith, who had surgery after breaking his fibula in a scrimmage the week before the season started, and star safety Adrian Marquez, who partially tore his MCL in a Week 2 loss to Boylan, returned last week, when the Indians held Highland Park to 23 yards on 20 carries.

“Having those guys gone for so long was tough to manage,” Jacobs said. “Having them back makes everything so much easier for us. We’re up to full strength. It gives us no excuse. We have everybody now.

“Lake Zurich has a fantastic defense, but we also think we’re going to bring it to the house.”